A Holocaust denier booted from his Sevier County home - and the country - should get a shot at arguing against his deportation, a federal appellate court has ruled.

Whether Ernst Zundel, 65, will actually be allowed to appear in U.S. District Court in Knoxville remains unclear, however. Zundel is in solitary confinement in a detention center in Toronto, Canada, where he is accused of being a threat to that country's national security.

Zundel is a German-born graphic artist and publisher whose 1980 pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?" rocketed him to infamy as a Holocaust denier and - as some allege - a neo-Nazi.

He lived in Canada for decades, but had long been denied citizenship. In 2000, Zundel entered the United States on a temporary visa. He then married Ingrid A. Rimland, a native of the Soviet Union who had become a U.S. citizen.

The couple moved to Wears Valley and opened an art gallery. In February 2003, the INS arrested Zundel on a charge that he had overstayed his visa and failed to follow through on his attempts to attain permanent residence status here.

Zundel and his wife cried foul, claiming the Holocaust revisionist was being persecuted for his views. Sevierville attorney Boyd Venable III filed a petition in federal court here to try to stop his deportation, but Senior Federal Judge James Jarvis refused to hear it, writing that there was "no legal basis" for his intervention.

Zundel was eventually deported to Canada, where officials are trying to send him back to Germany. He faces hate crime charges there in connection with his writings, which include the book "The Hitler We Loved and Why," and his Web site, www.zundelsite.org.

In an opinion released late last week, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Zundel is entitled to a hearing challenging his deportation.

"These claims require consideration by the district court," the opinion stated.

The U.S. Department of Justice argued that Zundel has already been deported, rendering his petition for relief as moot. The Justice Department also contends that the federal court here lacks any jurisdiction.

But the appellate court countered that those issues should be aired in Knoxville's federal courtroom.

"Whether, as the government argues, (federal law) strips the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear the remaining claims is a matter for the district court to take up," the opinion states. "So is the question whether Zundel waived his right to contest removal because it remains unclear whether Zundel most recently entered the country under the visa waiver pilot program."

There are many things about Zundel's swift trip back to Canada that the appellate court states it found "unclear."

"The precise nature of the events that resulted in Ernst Zundel's deportation to Canada casts more shadows than light on this appeal," the opinion states.

The court also finds fuzzy the reason for Zundel's continued imprisonment in Canada, where he is not charged with any crime but has been labeled a security threat.

"Canadian officials apparently took Zundel into custody and continue to detain him for reasons not revealed by this sparse record," the opinion states.

Zundel's wife still lives in Sevier County and maintains his Web site, where she posts updates on his case.

In an official response to the 6th Circuit ruling, Ingrid Zundel wrote, "There are dimensions to this important ruling I can't discuss at this point. It means, however, that now we can begin discovery - a process where we can ask questions and demand documents on court directives that are going to expose the depth of deceit and political interference of this deportation that was, in fact, a well-coordinated political kidnapping."

Zundel's imprisonment in Canada has sparked several protests by groups such as the Canadian Association for Free Expression. Those events have drawn counter-protests from antiracism groups.

Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308.

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Next, here are my corrections, just shipped to "Letters to the Editor":

To open a news article by stating "A Holocaust denier [was] booted from his Sevier County home" implies that an unsavory criminal was taken out by law enforcement. In fact, my husband, 65, is an award-winning artist of German descent with no criminal record on this continent, where he has lived for more than 40 years. He has run his own graphic arts business as a successful entrepreneur since he was in his early twenties. For decades, he gave employment to many, including unemployed minorities.

Satterfield states that the pamphlet "Did Six Million Really Die?" was authored by Ernst Zundel. It was, in fact, a booklet authored by a British student that had been reprinted in 18 different countries and translated into 12 languages, without causing any bellyache to anyone, before my husband secured the rights to republish it, causing global headlines about some very questionable claims about the Holocaust.

Satterfield also implies that Ernst Zundel entered this country on a temporary visa "... and then married..a U.S. citizen." He has that backwards - we were married for more than a year before my husband sold his home and business in Canada and acquired a gallery in Wears Valley, settling down for his retirement years.

Satterfield next states that the world-famous website, the Zundelsite, belongs to my husband - which is not true, as voluminous court transcripts reveal. That website is my property, as documented by my sworn affidavit and other evidence.

Finally, Satterfield claims that protest rallies against Ernst Zundel's brutal treatment in Canada have "drawn counter-protests from antiracism (sic) groups." About a dozen protests have been held world-wide, including two in the U.S. before Canadian embassies, to shame that country for its abominable imprisonment of a lifelong pacifist - without any counter-protesters. Only at the last of seven or eight protests in Canada itself did a dozen unwashed street folks suddenly appear, spilling from a rented bus, some of whom had never heard of Zundel, and all of whom had no idea what they were even protesting.